You know what I was doing last night? (Besides watching totally awesome episodes of House and 24 [Pay me later, papa Rupert, I'm busy]) Listening to Galactic.

Then I got to thinking ‘.. shit.. I haven’t listened to these guys in waaay too long.’ All that thinkin’ reminded me of an interview I did with the band in 2007 while I was in Rennes. I am still tired from that trip, but right now, Galactic is touring South America.

Here’s the article I did about that interview back then. Just imagine them about a year more awesome.

by Bassey Etim
RENNES, France — Stanton Moore wiped his eyes with the back of his wrist, Rich Vogel stared downward expressionless and an interpreter struggled to translate a stupid question into English. Tonight, Galactic is out-of-this-world bored or tired — good money would go on both. Last week, I caught up with jazz-infused, hip-hop ensemble Galactic at the Trans Music Festival in France’s Brittany province. Trans is known as one of the most raucous musical events on earth — hell, it’s housed in a network of airplane hangers. But for hip-hop journeymen Galactic, it was just a step on their way to Japan.

“This is the ultimate harshest schedule that we’ve ever had,” Galactic bassist Robert Mercurio said in an interview with The Badger Herald following their press conference.

Let’s face it, most rap groups don’t have to tour this often. But when your loyalty is to your music and your aim to hone an endlessly diverse art rather than sell 10 million records to kids who think Eminem reinvented rap, it’s the only way to put food on the table and mics in the studio.

“We try not to mix artisticness with business,” Mercurio said when asked whether they’ve ever considered searching for ways to gain more commercial appeal. “Like, ‘Oh! We got a hot chick, this’ll make us more popular.’ If we really wanted to sell albums, there’s a couple different decisions we would have made to get Fergilicious.”

Galactic has been confronted with a dilemma that infects the psyche of most genre-bending musicians. The mainstream music authority doesn’t want to spend the extra resources promoting or finding programming space for a band that can’t fit into a proven marketing template. Where the Black Eyed Peas got fed up with the whole thing and attached themselves to the Fergie brain slug, Galactic seems perfectly content to continue putting out underground bangers, even if it means adding the production of new music to an already packed tour schedule.

“As soon as we’re done with this, I’m going to send out an e-mail about something we have to get done for a mix,” said drummer Stanton Moore. “We were literally working on the European release of the record on our way over here.”

The recent addition of Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 is just the latest foray into new dimensions of music. Their previous part-time partners include a peculiar range of musicians from soul singer Theryl Dlcouet to the Counting Crows. At Trans, Chali 2na didn’t upstage or degrade the orchestral funk that has been Galactic’s calling card since their debut, Coolin’ Off, in 1996. Galactic saxophonist Ben Ellman did more than recite a media-friendly quote when he told the French press they felt Chali 2na was already part of the band — he was telling the truth. Their seamless, but loose performance at Trans likely had most of the drunken French-speaking crowd convinced they had been performing together for decades.

“Dude, who are these guys?” one reveler asked, pulling me uncomfortably close to his stained armpit. “So cool man, so cool, girls dance … I’m going to dance with the girls.”

The nature of their specialty — uncensored variety — makes marketing each CD almost like starting from scratch. So they make their money on the road.

“We don’t really have the biggest success with record sales,” Galactic keyboardist Rich Vogel admitted. “We do have a pretty hardcore fan base that would buy most of whatever we put out for sure. … Our hardcore fan base is always changing too,” he added, unconsciously contradicting himself. “We are not tapped into one genre that will just pick up our CD immediately.”

Despite their yeoman status throughout American musical genres, Galactic still visibly bristles at one definition: jam band. Vogel was quick to distance the band from a French reporter’s suggestion that it is another in a long line of New Orleans-inspired jam bands.

“We don’t consider ourselves a jam band,” Vogel said matter-of-factly after waiting for a long-winded translation of the question posed in French. “We are a subject in the jam world because we do try to improvise, but [we have] songs.” He proceeded to explain that because Galactic tours so frequently, their already broad songs are bound to expand.

Quite simply the difference is that, well, no offense to the jam-heads out there, Galactic just commits more effort than the puzzle-piece style musicianship typical of most jam band fare. Quite simply, they’re continually seeking to evolve rather than relax with some weed on a meandering, never-ending tour.

“We became a band playing in New Orleans in clubs,” Moore added, anxiously bouncing his leg for a chance to cast off the jam band rumor, even cutting off Ellman to finish his point. “Entertaining a roomful of people in a bar is a lot different than making a record.”

Even on the road in the northwestern corner of France, Galactic’s evolution continues as the band slowly shifts toward a new genre, adding impromptu elements from their shows to the regular rotation in their already vast library. Despite their well-catalogued success on the hip-hop scene, Galactic hints that their next album will sprout closer to their jazz roots, so to speak.

“It’s not like it’s a permanent direction; it’s maybe just a branch off the trunk of what we do,” Robert Mercurio said as I uncomfortably realized that most of the chairs in the press room were bales of green plastic hay. “That’s not to say right now we’re a hip-hop band. We’re a band that’s always evolving and branching out, but always retaining our trunk … to keep the metaphor going,” Mercurio said to the shoulder-bopping giggles of Rich Vogel. “We’re always going back to our trunk, and maybe it’s grown a little bit since the last time we’ve gone back to the trunk.” The two musicians exchange hearty congratulations on the tree metaphor, reminding each another to use that one again.

The formula for music stars isn’t that much different than for galactic ones. You can be blue and exhaust all your energy in a few years before imploding violently, creating a black hole in that continuum of music. Or you can be orange, steadily making great music for years and offering life-giving inspiration to a new planet of musicians. The “orange” approach to musicianship has priceless intangibles for those willing to put hubris aside and embrace them.

“We try to do what’s in our heart and do what makes us the happiest,” Mercurio said, betraying a smile on the left side of his face.

As for when we can expect Galactic stateside in Wisconsin, they’re really not sure.

“We’ve had some mixed results in Milwaukee,” Mercurio said a bit too politely — he’s clearly the media-handler of this bunch. So I told him all the venues are terrible, particularly The Rave and its horrific sound system, acoustics and event staff.

“I’m really glad to hear you say that,” Vogel chimed in quickly.

“There’s really big ups and downs,” Mercurio added, quick to vindicate the Wisconsin crowds for persevering through muffled shows. “All the rooms in The Rave are horrible.”

Anyway, they promised to consider shows at the University of Wisconsin’s Memorial Union, and playing as many gigs as they do, Galactic is bound to pass through Madison soon enough. But local fans can’t be too disappointed if they don’t hear what had the French flailing wildly for little more than an hour.

“We’re already trying to think ahead, and we don’t know if it’s gonna be that hop-hop,” Mercurio said. “Gotta get back to the trunk.”

This is why I’m so in love with music. Certain projects are labors of love that come straight through the artist’s heart to yours. In that spirit, you’ve got to take a few minutes out of your day to check out  Pierre De Gaillande’s Gorges Brassens Translation Project.

Brassens is a legendary Frenchman (who I had the pleasure of learning about while on a jaunt in France) whose music is simple, evocative and inanely catchy. Basically, the guy was a kick-ass anarchist in the 60′s who wrote some of the finest guitar lyrics I’ve ever heard. This project translates him into English and goes beyond doing an earnest job of it – its a pretty damn close mirror to the real thing. According to the website:

“Pierre is currently at work on an illustrated book of the translated poems along with a CD of the songs performed in English.”

Dude, I will be the first one in line. Pierre was kind enough to send us a sample track, so check it out!

Princess

p.s. check out his full band, Melomane

Read a synopsis of the project in Pierre’s own words after the jump:

There have been several major French artists who have made an impact on the English speaking world; namely Edith Piaf, Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Brel, and lately Manu Chao. Strangely, Georges Brassens is not on this list. The work of Georges Brassens remains to be discovered in the US. This seems to be both a glaring loss for English-speaking lovers of poetry and music everywhere, and a huge opportunity for the introduction of an important artist.

Ever since I was a child, my father, who is now a French professor living in Los Angeles, was a fan of Brassens. I grew up hearing his music around the house constantly. Growing up in California with a French father and an American mother, I was always stuck between two cultures, and striving to understand what it meant to be French. To a large extent, the music and philosophy of Brassens defined “Frenchness” for me. As I get older, I realize that these ideals have informed and guided me throughout life.  The idea for this translation came to me when my father sent me a translation of one of Brassens’ texts and asked me to put it to music.

I have begun a translation of the texts of Brassens, keeping the rhyme scheme, meaning, and wit of the originals intact, while making them fluid and musical in English. As of this writing, I have begun translation on 15 Brassens songs. As part of this project, I have begun work on recording an album of the songs in English. I am seeking publication of an illustrated book of translations of Brassens’ songs. The publication would include an autobiographical section, which would consist of an introduction to Brassens, and the story of my collaboration with my father on the project. The publication would include illustrations and imagery, working in collaboration with several French/American visual artists and/or graphic novelists. The idea would be to let artists create imagery inspired by and reflecting their personal responses to the songs.

Thanks to another job, I will be heading out to Cannes, France for MIDEM this year. Though I won’t be posting for a few days due to my lack of internet access, feel secure in the fact that I am going to come back from the south of France with a boat-load of great music to listen to. That music will then make it’s way onto my computer, morph itself into blog-form and become a post right here on this site. It’s the future you son of a bitch, deal with it.

Our first day will consist of lounging and getting good food with our friends over at Fullsteam Records from Finland. Be sure to check out some of their artists such as Rubik, Lapko and Downstairs. After that everything is up in the air as my belly will be filled with fine wine and aged cheese.

Will you be at MIDEM as well? Hit me up!

So have you gotten a chance to check out Justice? What about getting the time together in your hectic schedule to see them live? Even better… What about being cool enough to be “back stage”? Probably not. Thanks to multi-award winning directors and intimate friends of the band Romain Gavras (“Stress” director) and So-Me (“D.A.N.C.E.”, “DVNO”, Justice will have a live DVD/CD/Documentary hit shelves on December 9th, just in time for you to buy it as a gift for your preferred religious holiday. This documentary covers their 3 week US March tour and shows you every gory detail of life on the road of this Grammy-nominated French duo. Check out the trailer after the jump.

JUSTICE ON MYSPACE